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Saturday, May 7, 2016

Trump is unfit for any office, morally and intellectually.

As soon as it became clear that game-show host Donald Trump was the
presumptive Republican nominee, the usual radio ranters and Fox News
mouths began the inevitable litany: If you aren’t for Donald Trump, then
you must be for Hillary Clinton — it’s Himself or Herself.

There is more to this than A/B testing.

“If you aren’t for Trump, then you’re for Clinton” is a cheap rhetorical
ploy. I’d write that any thinking adult would be ashamed for falling
for that kind of sixth-grade debater’s stratagem, but a Republican
electorate capable of choosing Donald Trump as its standard-bearer is
incapable of shame.

The angry insistence — him or her! — is, for the moment, mainly an
attempt to forestall further criticism of Trump. That criticism consists
of stating a fact that is not a matter of degree but a binary
proposition, a yes/no question. It is not that Trump is less mentally
stable than Mrs. Clinton (probably true) or that he is more dishonest
than Mrs. Clinton (difficult to say) or that he might do even more
damage to the republic, or any other point of comparison between the
candidates.

The issue, instead, is this:
Donald Trump is unfit for the office.

He is unfit for any office, morally and intellectually.

A man who could suggest, simply because it is convenient, that his
opponent’s father had something to do with the assassination of
President Kennedy is unfit for any position of public responsibility.

His low character is disqualifying.
His personal history is disqualifying.
His complete, utter, total, and lifelong lack of honor is disqualifying.
The fact that he is going to have to take time out of the convention to
appear in court to hear a pretty convincing fraud case against him is
disqualifying.